Peepshow ‘Inbetween’

Today sees the opening of an exhibition of personal work from the fantastic Peepshow collective at Dreamspace Gallery, allowing you to get that bit closer to original pieces, collages and drawings without the classic computer screen barrier.

We went round to their studio to have some pizza and ask them what we should expect from this latest show, eight years on from their inaugural exhibition as young Brighton graduate whipper-snappers – and even snuck along to see a special preview of the show itself.

In their own words, “In between their day-to-day studio activity, there are always thoughts, ideas, possibilities and fragments growing and developing after the work has been done. Peepshow has chosen to show these personal investigations, drawings, prints and objects at the dreamspace gallery, EC1, offering a secret insight into the personal minds of the Peepshow Collective.” And what better excuse do a set of illustrators need?

The last time you had a show together it was a couple of years back with ‘Many Hands Make More Work’. How does this show differ?

Luke: Well, the last show was more about trying to get us all working together, and this one is pretty different, with everyone working more individually. Most of the work is framed and has all been created specifically for the show. For the previous show there was a real effort to make it all link up, or one entity. This time we’ve concentrated on just making the work. This show has come about at a time when it’s been important for us to address our own work, rather than our collective work.

So, there’s no motive for the show to get you lots of new commercial work then?

Miles: No, it’s just an excuse to make some new work and hang it, without commercial pressures. It’s nice to give ourselves a deadline for it too. There’s also no animation work so we thought Pete’s contribution might be some nice cakes.
Pete: Yep, Pete’s Tuck Shop.
Luke: Everyone will get something out of it though, probably far more than their commercial work.
Andrew: The reason we’ve always done exhibitions is so that we can do some self motivated work and show it to people, so this one is no different.

With lots of different styles and techniques, what’s going to tie it together?

Luke: Well, nothing really!
Miles: I guess just that’s it’s all of us and people are pretty used to seeing all of our work together.
Marie: Also, it’s all work that we want to make, rather than commercial work — that’s why it’s called ‘In Between’, so that gives it a bit of a theme.
Luke: It’s also a chance to get to show our personal work to people as we all work on self initiated projects anyway…

What kind of work can we expect?

Miles: It’s a mixture… there’s some original work, prints, woodcuts, drawings, collages, it’s very much about real pieces, rather than print outs.

How did the show come about?

Miles: Dreamspace got in touch with us about doing a show and we’d been to some things there before, were impressed with the way it looked, so we thought it was a good idea. We had also chatted about taking the work from this show and exhibiting it somewhere else… maybe New York?
Luke: In the last year we’ve just all been really really busy with work, so it’s been good to adjust ourselves a little from just doing commercial work. Also, I think the space has dictated the work a little bit, but in a good way. At first more people were thinking of producing large scale pieces, or installations, and actually the space just suits a classic way of hanging a show. We’ve reacted to that and it’s been quite healthy.

So have you taken time out of your normal studio days to work for the show?

Miles: Yes, for sure. I’ve been working at home without a computer for the first time in ten years…

Do you think it’s always necessary to show your personal work?

Luke: There are other ways of showing it aside from in a gallery. You should always be trying to put it out in the world somehow, illustration is an applied subject, so it should be applied somehow. I’m not sure just putting it on your website is quite enough these days. Personally I think it’s almost like pretending it’s real. I’m quite keen that things exist as physical objects and real things now.

So what are people going to get out of coming to the show, rather than just looking at your site?

Luke: Well, Pete’s cake for a start.
Miles: And of course the chance to see original work in the form it’s intended.
Andrew: Yeah up close and in depth.
Miles: It’s definitely not just a set of prints you could buy online that we’ve printed out and put in a gallery.
Luke: I think it’s interesting that even though it’s personal work everyone’s still very hard on themselves. Everyone doesn’t just slacken off because it’s for themselves, it’s almost like you’re even tougher on yourself.

Coming from someone who gets sent more than my fair share of illustration work on a daily basis, I can assure anyone who manages to pop along that this is a set of illustrators who are firmly at the top of their game – showing some honestly made, beautifully hung work. With a catalogue available to pick up free from the show too, this is something very special indeed.

And so the crème de la crème was announced, with five of D&AD’s highest honour – the Black Pencil – awarded this year. From radio advertising to branding it’s a diverse selection that’s sure to get people talking. It’s great to see some of our favourite projects from the last year recognised, and some we weren’t familiar with (the brilliant radio station for dogs, for instance) being celebrated. Without further ado, here they are!Made Thought’s comprehensive rebrand of paper manufacturers G. F. Smith aimed to “better reflect the legacy, stature and future ambitions of the company,” using a new Humanist Sans typeface designed to reflect both machine printing and calligraphy. As well as creating the new identity, Made Thought has also revamped G. F. Smith’s websites.

D&AD has awarded White Pencils in a category of their own since 2013, and these recognise design and advertising projects that “demonstrate that marketing and marketing communications can be a force for good,” in the words of D&AD CEO Tim Lindsay. Four projects have been awarded the philanthropic pencils this year, two for brand and two for not-for-profit advertising and marketing communications. Here are the projects recognised this year… Lowe China used very powerful images of road traffic accident victims holding signs in the Human Traffic Sign campaign, which takes a straightforward idea and executes it brilliantly. Created as part of car client Buick’s wider road safety campaign, Human Traffic addresses the fact that one person dies every ten minutes in China – a terrifying statistic indeed.www.lowechina.com the infuriatingly catchy LEGO Movie song Everything is Awesome for good, Don’t Panic London’s video (which went viral almost instantly) showed a beautiful LEGO Arctic scene being destroyed by oil. The campaign was a protest against LEGO’s alignment with Shell, the upshot was that in July last year the toy manufacturer announced it wouldn’t be renewing its contract with the oil giant – a true success story.

The category winners for this year’s Designs of the Year have been announced, including a nod to one of our favourite projects, Marcel’s Inglorious Fruits & Vegetables campaign, which scooped the graphics category nomination. The campaign was nominated by our very own Alex Bec, and was created to champion the beauty within misshapen fruits and vegetables, which are sold at Intermarché for 30% cheaper than their more traditional-looking counterparts. The overall Design of the Year from the six category winners will be announced June, and all are on display at the exhibition alongside the other nominations (read our thoughts on it here) until 31 March 2016.This crowd-funded project develops ways to efficiently remove plastic pollution from aquatic ecosystems on a large scale.www.theoceancleanup.com university building in Santiago was designed to create “the right environment for knowledge-creation.”www.elementalchile.cl car that drives itself! No wheels, no pedals, just a button.www.googleblog.blogspot.co.uk little chips were developed by Harvard University students and use living human cells that mimic the complex tissue structures and functions of entire organs, aiming to help advance the creation of personalised medicines and aid drug discovery with lower development costs.www.wyss.harvard.edu Central St Martins graduate’s designs were chosen for their demonstration of technical skills and aesthetics, showing combinations of colour, cut and materials “with vision and confidence,” according to the Design Museum.www.thomastait.com

It’s Nice That founder and creative director Will Hudson was part of the D&AD Black Pencil jury this year. Here he is on judging one of the industry’s main awards, and why it helped change his mind about creative competitions…

People in the graphic arts world have got an infernal problem with Pick Me Up. It’s the Taylor Swift of illustration events: everyone claims they’re not into it but when it comes on the radio they know all the words and are happily singing along. My opinion on it has undulated for years, but going to the private view last night made me realise that all this time I doubted it and listened sceptically to the rumours surrounding it, I was totally wrong.